The invention relates to a CARS device and especially to a microscope utilizing coherent anti-Stokes Raman radiation emitted by molecular clusters to image the clusters.
There are five methods currently usable for molecular (not elemental) selective microscopy. Four of the techniques have been used for study of biomolecules. The fifth, a coherent anti-Stokes microscope similar to the type described herein has not been used in the study of molecules. None of the existing techniques have claimed to be capable of distinguishing molecules on the basis of their characteristic infrared energy levels while at the same time providing spatial resolution at the much smaller level characteristic of visible wavelengths.